Aurora Citizen

News & Views from the Citizens of Aurora Ontario

Archive for the ‘Community Input’ Category

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Guest Opinion: Will Nigel Kean Put Community Ahead of Personal Ambition?

Posted by auroracitizen on August 22, 2010

Nigel Kean is the reason we have had the worst municipal government in Aurora’s history.

Phyllis Morris was the ‘winner’ of the 2006 mayoralty race — with less than 50% of votes — due to the candidacy of Nigel Kean and the vote splitting that ultimately defeated Tim Jones.

Nigel Kean was an adequate member of Council, but certainly not an outstanding one.

Now, again, in 2010, Nigel Kean is setting up to play the role of spoiler between incumbent Phyllis Morris and front-runner Geoff Dawe.

Nigel, if you had any sense of public duty, both to yourself and to Aurora and its citizens, you would withdraw from the mayoralty contest and run for Council instead. There is still lots of time, until September 10.

You will never make mayor, but you could turn out to be a great member of Council.

It takes a big person to accept one’s limitations. It takes an even bigger person to temper one’s personal ambitions in the best interest of the greater good of the community.

Please do the right thing; end your mayoralty bid and lead a new and rejuvenated group of people seeking council membership, as senior councillor. Lead the way to a general house cleaning and a new beginning.

You would earn the grateful thanks of your community. 

Augustinius

Posted in Community Corner, Community Input, Election 2010, Guest Post, Leadership | 35 Comments »

Role of Developers in an Election

Posted by auroracitizen on August 12, 2010

Growth is often raised as a significant issue in any election campaign. Politician who cosy up to developers have sometimes been rejected by citizens because of this relationship and the concern that campaign contributions by the developers may influence projects that stand to net the developers significant profits.

To be clear, there is nothing illegal or inappropriate about a developer making a contribution to a campaign. It is within their rights to make a donation according the election guidelines — the same as any other citizen or business.

However, the public sometimes holds a different view. They are concerned about the potential appearance of a conflict of interest.

One of our readers asked the question about whether a candidate should answer a question whether his or her campaign is sponsored directly or indirectly by a developer or any entity seeking development approval from the town.

We are assuming they meant before the election — because all contributions must be declared after the election — but that would be too late to have the information as a voter which may influence your vote.

Sounded like a good question. So what are your thoughts.

Posted in Code of Ethics, Community Input, Conflict of Interest, Election 2010, Integrity | 4 Comments »

Council Composition: What Should It Look Like?

Posted by auroracitizen on August 3, 2010

We have had a number of comments about the make up of Council going forward. The 2 that seem to be of interest are whether we need 8 Councillors and whether we should have a ward system.

Total Number of Councillors:
The argument has been put forward that based on our population that 8 Councillors and their corresponding salaries and work load is not justified. Both 4 and 6 have been put forward as options.

On the other hand, our population continues to grow and Councillors are part-time and resultant do not have the time to make the same commitment as a full-time councillor. Particularly those that have other full-time commitments.

Ward System:
The Ward system was debated prior to this election as to whether it should be put to a vote on this coming election ballot. It was decide not to include the question on this ballot. Currently councillors are elected at large. Everyone is put in the same pot and the top 8 councillors become the Council. They have no particular alignment with any specific area.

A key argument against wards is that every Councillor can be called by any citizen and they are not beholden to a specific area.

Against is that a Councillor has too many issues to worry about and they can’t focus on helping a specific ward.

Please use this post to discuss the various merits of these 2 topics.

Posted in Community Corner, Community Input, Growth, Town Council | 39 Comments »

Role of the Moderator

Posted by auroracitizen on July 29, 2010

We received a comment from Anonymous for a Reason in the post When Is It Campaigning — and When Isn’t It? on 7/28/10 that commented “I’d welcome some guest moderation from Elizabeth Bishendon again, but I guess now that she has thrown her hat in Geoffrey Dawe’s camp she is off-limits for the duration of the election campaign. Who else would be a good guest moderator?”

It might be beneficial to remind readers that the role of the moderator is simply to review comments to ensure they are not spam and don’t contain foul language or unproven allegations.

Since the blog was started we have received over 4200 comments and probably less than 20 comments have been rejected in that time. Those either because of language or allegations that were unproven. We even publish those that start “While I’ll be surprised if this even gets posted, here’s my two cents…..” 🙂

We have never censored comments based on opinions. If you review some of the comments you should see that to be true. We have even specifically invited Phyllis to respond directly to the comments verses have the town lawyer send threatening letters.

The real direction of the blog is driven by the posts and the resulting comments.

We would encourage anyone to submit a post for publication — something a number of folks have done by sending an email to the moderator email address or even as a comment with instructions that it should be as a post. We then simply copy and paste the email unchanged as a post and you can determine whether to have it under your name or a pseudonym.

An example was the recent post about the ban on tanning which was originally suggested by Robert The Bruce as a comment 7/26/10 on the post More of the Same From Mayor Morris and Sher St. Kitts or Why No Evening or Weekends Trains for GO Transit. You can also see the number of community posts by clicking on the categories “Guest Post” or Community Input” in the right hand column.

So, for example, Fred if you would send along a post about the industrial plants with a little bit of information — we would be pleased to publish. Or any other topic for that matter.

Also if you have any additional ideas for questions for the candidates — send those along and we will prepare a list and pass them along.

This is intended to be community driven. Please take advantage of the opportunity.

Posted in Community Input, Guest Post | 31 Comments »

More of the Same From Mayor Morris and Sher St. Kitts

Posted by auroracitizen on July 25, 2010

The Aurora Jazz Festival is on next week, so therefore the Farmer’s Market has to move out. Sort of.

At the July 13th council meeting, Sher St. Kitts appeared at open forum to instruct the Mayor that the Farmer’s Market vendors who are located in the Park will be in the way of the Jazz Festival, and therefore would have to move.  

The Mayor, as compliant as ever (at least to her “friends”) of course agreed, and then an email went out to the Farmer’s Market telling them they would have to move!

Last year, it was billed as the Aurora Jazz Festival and Farmer’s Market. This year, because certain people are no longer associated with the Farmer’s Market (you may recall that Sher quit when she didn’t get the compensation she demanded), it is just the Aurora Jazz Festival.

Resultant, all Vendors who are permitted to operate in the actual Town park — and this is their 3rd year of operation in the park — are NOT allowed to be in their spots next week. They are being relocated. The reasoning is that those vendors will interfere with the Jazz Festival.  

However, the truth is they will NOT interfere with the Jazz Festival. The truth is, they WILL interfere with the Vendors that are coming with the Jazz Festival — for one week.

Yes, we are bumping vendors who have purchased permits to operate weekly in the Town Park (some for up to three years), with vendors who are coming for a ONE week event.

Oh, and they possibly paid a fee to organizer Sher St. Kitts for the privilege of having a booth.  

Hmmm…… are we the only ones who finds this disgusting.

Mayor Morris and her special friend Sher St. Kitts strike again. Even with an election looming the arrogance and complete lack of respect for the folks in Aurora by this Mayor continue to amaze.

Posted in Code of Ethics, Community Corner, Community Input, Integrity, Leadership, Local Business | 67 Comments »

Why No Evening or Weekends Trains for GO Transit

Posted by auroracitizen on July 21, 2010

Thank  you for hosting this blog to allow residents to voice their opinions and concerns.

Here’s something I can’t figure out: why does the GO train run all day long from east to west but not north to south? And why no north-south weekend service?

The north-south trains are certainly full during commuter hours and the GO buses are often packed on weekends. As an Aurora resident who enjoys dining downtown, theatre and sightseeing, I would LOVE to have the same service as the people in Pickering or Burlington. I don’t get it. The tracks are there. The trains exist. The demand is likely there. But the service is not.

Personally, I would eagerly take advantage of a mid-day train to Barrie or downtown. I often take the GO bus downtown on Saturdays when I go to see shows or shopping. The bus, however, is NOT the train. The ride is uncomfortable — stuffy air, bumpy roads, sometimes stop-and-go traffic. I recently took the train from Toronto to Niagara and wow, what a difference. It was a lovely ride — and there were hardly any people on the train in the middle of a summer Saturday.

Think about this: Our Saturday GO buses are quite full and the Toronto-to-Niagara train is nearly empty. But the Toronto-Niagara Saturday riders have a wide-open schedule and we have only a few, crowded buses. We are constantly told that people should take transit rather than drive, but if the service is not convenient, how can we do so?

I would love to read what others have to say about this. How can we get all-day and weekend GO train service to take us north and south — downtown and to Barrie — the same way that the east-west service runs?

Or am I the only one who feels this way?

Marie

Posted in Community Corner, Community Input, Environment, Growth, Traffic/Parking, Uncategorized | 11 Comments »

What is the Downside of Not Fighting Westhill?

Posted by auroracitizen on July 21, 2010

Out of the chaff being spread between Mr. Poppe and other posters including yours truly, I did find one grain of wheat that might do with some clarification.

Guy Poppe responded to my earlier post regarding Westhill.

“If you think it is expensive to fight legal battles (brought by others) wait until you find out the cost of having to remedy water issues for neighboring properties.

The Town has a choice: ensure proper water and sewage resources from the developer or face further litigation for negligent approval.”

If I’m reading correctly, GP believes the Mayor’s ‘spend now-save later’ strategy is an example of far-sighted wisdom. ie; Aurora should spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to kill a previously approved development because said development MAY damage the water and sewage works of neighbouring properties and IF that damage occurs Aurora MIGHT be on the hook for the costs of repairs and POSSIBLE litigation.

Since most of us seem to have the more cynical view that this is simply a case of blatant pandering to a special interest group perhaps our more informed readers/posters could enlighten us (at a See Spot Run level please) on the consequences of the worst case scenario.

If it all goes wrong as some fear is Aurora actually left holding the bag?

What about Westhill? the Region? the Province?

Tim the Enchanter

Posted in Community Corner, Community Input, Environment, Growth | 2 Comments »

Guest Post: Reader Asks Council to Focus on the Bigger Issues

Posted by auroracitizen on June 27, 2010

Fifteen years ago, when I moved to Aurora, I had such optimistic hopes of my future life in a small town. Over the years, I have become more and more disillusioned and saddened to find that I inadvertently moved to such a dysfunctional suburban settlement at this.

The town has many problems — as do many communities — what with parking, traffic, vandalism and such, but those have only been addressed on the surface. The downtown Yonge Street core has been a problem since I came here and despite several promising efforts — committees formed, proposals set forth — little has changed in the last fifteen years.

Traffic on through-streets has become a growing problem, but the quick-fix of unsightly, expensive chicanes only provide aggravation to residents and ridicule from visitors. There’s been a loud hoo-haw-haw about the Farmer’s Market, but in the end, residents merely want fresh, local produce and few people really care whether the mayor’s friends are butting in and becoming celebrities in their own minds or whether campaigning politicians are taking credit for the zucchini and parsley on hand.

Now, the issue of the train whistle has reared its ugly head once again. Back in 2008, the Aurora Citizen stated: “’Mayor Morris is quoted in The Banner stating, “Residents have dealt with this problem long enough.’ That will be cold comfort if someone is harmed because the whistles are stopped.” (Aurora Citizen, “To Blow or Not to Blow”, October 31, 2008).

Here we are, a year and a half later, and for once, I see that Mayor Morris was correct — residents HAVE dealt with this problem long enough. As William Hastings pointed out in his recent letter to local newspapers, they’ve dealt with it for 157 years, because that’s how long the trains have been running through town with whistles blowing.

It’s not like this issue suddenly appeared last year to torment folks who bought homes near the tracks. That’s like buying a home on the edge of a river and then complaining when a fish lands on your front lawn.

When I came here, I bought a home near a school. My children are grown and graduated, so if I now band together with my also-retired neighbours, can we get Mayor Morris to do something about all the rogue children wandering the area around 3:00pm every day? Maybe we could re-direct them elsewhere with concrete chicanes. Or perhaps we could send these wandering children to the Farmer’s Market, where they could hand out political brochures.

Does our Town council feel compelled to take seriously the complaints of every whining resident while slapping Band-Aids on real problems? Are we destined to become a village of idiots? It certainly looks that way.

Posted in Community Input, Growth | 21 Comments »

Guest Post: Further Info on $500,000 Trail Addition Requested

Posted by auroracitizen on June 19, 2010

I do a lot of hiking on a weekly basis in town & in Newmarket and thoroughly enjoy Sheppard’s Bush and the Nokiidaa Trail north of Green Lane in Newmarket.

I just read the article at yorkregion.com, Trail link project set to start this winter ( http://www.yorkregion.com/news/article/835366–trail-link-project-set-to-start-this-winter )

At the General Committee meeting Aurora Council  approved going ahead with linking the Nokiidaa trail in Aurora to Newmarket section, but would still need final approval. I have followed bits & pieces of this topic from various sources but don’t have the whole picture. I do see that this does not include the “other planned enhancements, such as turtle ponds and snake hibernacula” and the project is going to cost $500,000 (1/2 million) and that’s without the already spent consultant’s fees, etc.

Fair enough, you don’t get anything for free and I’m all for trails since I am a user, but I on these trails, weekday evenings, mornings and weekend mornings and I don’t see heavy use. You pass by a few hikers, runners, a couple of families sometimes.

Yes, trails are great, but here’s the kicker $500,000 and its less than ½ kilometer of trail. Less than 500 metres ( 283 metres of trail and 185 metres of board walk – so it’s an average of $1,000 per metre.

There’s already a great boardwalk already there on St. John’s Sideroad, why is another boardwalk needed at that cost? I hope they plan on putting parking in somewhere there because I have always seen that area to hike as a problem since you have to park down on Industrial Drive at the dog park or further south at the Leisure complex.

Anyone have a quick summary as to what they are getting at $1,000/metre?

Posted in Community Corner, Community Input, Environment, Guest Post, Recreation | 5 Comments »

Reader asks: Is the Code of Conduct Counter-productive?

Posted by auroracitizen on May 28, 2010

I had the opportunity this past Tuesday May 25th to watch the Aurora Council on Rogers TV in particular the debate and subsequent vote on the property development at Yonge & Centre streets. This issue consumed Tuesday evening’s council meeting and produced some heated debate from both sides as to whether the development should be delayed pending the release of the Promenade report.

I have also followed the reporting in the Banner and its web version yorkregion.com as well as the opinions in some of the Aurora based blogs including this one. It now strikes me that Aurora’s Code of Conduct may be working against any freedom of expression or was there actually a breach of the code committed in trying to sway the opinion of the Banner readers. It did strike me as odd that the chairperson of the town’s economic development advisory committee was critical of the councillors and the process.

Please read the excerpt from the below article and then the appropriate section from the Code of Conduct. What’s your opinion on this matter? Is the Code counter-productive, should it be applied to the letter of the law or simply a waste of space? 

1.    From http://www.yorkregion.com/news/local/article/821240–aurora-project-baffles-development-chairperson

 (I believe this article was also published in print in Tuesday May 25th edition of the Banner.)

Aurora project baffles development chairperson              by Sean Pearce

The chairperson of the town’s economic development advisory committee says he is scratching his head after council paved the way for a multi-storey residential building planned for Yonge and Centre streets last week.

The steering committee for the downtown study is working to release a draft version of its plan next month so it’s curious why councillors would vote to greenlight a six-to-seven-storey mixed-use development at this point, EDAC chairperson and downtown steering committee member Chris Ballard said.

It’s concerning councillors would approve official plan and bylaw amendments to permit the proposal, eyed for the northeast corner of Yonge and Centre, without knowing what the downtown study has to say, as it may set a poor long-term precedent, he said.

He’s also perplexed why it’s being waved through despite having about 25 fewer parking spaces than current policies permit.

“Why spend all of that time and effort on a plan with new rules and regulations and then just sneak this in under the wire?” he said. “I’m pretty miffed certain councillors would vote for this when they know we have a draft of the (Aurora) promenade study coming out in June.”

2.    From the Town of Aurora’s website “By-Law Number 5037-08.C Being a By-Law to Adopt a Code of Conduct for Members of Advisory & Statutory Committees”

Section 3 Communications and Media Relations

Committee Members will accurately and adequately communicate the attitudes and decisions of the Committee and Council, even if they disagree with the majority decision of Committee or Council.

Members shall show respect for the decision-making process of the Committee and Council.

Official information related to decisions and resolutions made by the Committee or Council will normally be communicated to the community and the media in an official capacity by the Mayor or designated staff member or through a Press Release issued by the Corporation.

Information concerning adopted policies, procedures and decisions of the committee shall be conveyed openly and accurately.

Confidential information will be communicated only when and after determined by Council.

When a committee member chooses to communicate through the media which may include or involve interviews, editorials, writing of a regular column in the newspaper of magazine, hosting/co-hosting a regular televised program, where they are identified as a “member of a committee of the Town of Aurora” which is a recognized entity of the Municipality as a Corporation, the committee member shall be expected to feature an appropriate acceptable disclaimer stating “the opinions reflected by the member are their own personal comments and are not endorsed nor representative of the committee or the Town of Aurora Council”.

Posted in Code of Ethics, Community Corner, Community Input, Leadership, Town Council | 5 Comments »

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